As the final season of FX’s hit vampiric comedy What We Do in the Shadows prepares for release, the cast is revealing their comedic secrets to the world, including Matt Berry’s iconic line deliveries. For every episode of WWDITS, there are a dozen edits online of Berry delivering lines in all manner of accents, from posh English to slightly less posh English to posh English pretending to be from Tucson, Arizona. While Berry’s inflections and pronunciations have become a core part of his character (Laszlo Cravensworth), the actor says he only does them to amuse himself.
Matt Berry sat down with Variety to discuss the final season of What We Do in the Shadows. The actor was asked about his beloved speech pattern and off-kilter line deliveries in the series. Laszlo has become a viral meme online through many of his phrases, most famously, “You truly are the most devious bastard in New York Citttaaaaaayyy!” The actor revealed that the unexpected deliveries weren’t originally a part of his character and only did them to keep himself amused during shooting. His line deliveries in What We Do in the Shadows are 100% improvised, as even Matt Berry doesn’t always know when he will do them. He said:
“It’s just done to amuse myself. That’s why I did it in the first place, and that’s why I continue to do it. I don’t know when it’s going to happen; I never know which word is going to get attacked. It’ll just kind of come out. It’ll come out completely naturally. But the thing is, it will sound completely unnatural.”
Matt Berry Breaks Down Why What We Do in the Shadows Works So Well
Most TV shows have season and series-long arcs in which their core cast of characters grows and develops, gradually becoming better (or worse) people. However, most shows don’t star a trio of blood-sucking, sex-addicted vampires whose housekeeper is a descendant of the most famous vampire slayer to have ever existed. Part of the reason What We Do in the Shadows works so well, at least according to Matt Berry, is its stubbornly static characters. The vampires Laszlo, Nadia (Natasia Demetriou), and Nandor (Kayvan Novak) don’t change much across the show’s five (soon to be six) seasons — not because they’re perfect, like Sherlock Holmes, for example, but simply because they’re too stubbornly set in their ways. Berry explains:
“It’s one of the rare shows, other than The Munsters or something, where you join these characters fully formed, and they don’t need to develop other than, say, Gizmo’s character. The actual vampires are completely stuck in their ways.”
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What We Do in the Shadows Final Season Finally Gets a Release Date
At last, we know when What We Do in the Shadows season 6 will air.
A spin-off series from Taika Waititi’s indie comedy movie of the same name, What We Do in the Shadows is coming to a close with its sixth and final season. Airing since 2019, the hit comedy has won one Primetime Emmy and been nominated for eight awards for its fifth season — including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Matt Berry. As the show prepares to end, Laszlo Cravensworth finds himself becoming a self-obsessed scientist. However, having been turned into a vampire during the Victorian era, Laszlo has a very outdated understanding of the sciences.
What We Do in the Shadows
Season 6 premieres on FX on October 2, 2024. The first five seasons are streaming on
Hulu
.